Remediation of Textile Effluents by Membrane Based Treatment PDF

Journal of Environmental Management 147 (2015) 55e72
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Journal of Environmental Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jenvman
Review
Remediation of textile efuents by membrane based treatment

techniques: A state of the art review
Jhilly Dasgupta a, Jaya Sikder a, **, Sudip Chakraborty b, *, Stefano Curcio b, Enrico Drioli c
a
Department of Chemical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Durgapur, Durgapur 713209, West Bengal, India
Department of Informatics, Modeling, Electronics and Systems Engineering (DIMES), University of Calabria, Via P. Bucci, Cubo e 42a,
87036 Rende (CS), Italy
c
WCU Department of Energy Engineering, College of Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul 133-791, Republic of Korea
b
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Received 23 May 2014
Received in revised form
5 August 2014
Accepted 9 August 2014
Available online
The textile industries hold an important position in the global industrial arena because of their undeniable contributions to basic human needs satisfaction and to the world economy. These industries are
however major consumers of water, dyes and other toxic chemicals. The efuents generated from each
processing step comprise substantial quantities of unutilized resources. The efuents if discharged
without prior treatment become potential sources of pollution due to their several deleterious effects on
the environment. The treatment of heterogeneous textile efuents therefore demands the application of
environmentally benign technology with appreciable quality water reclamation potential. These features
can be observed in various innovative membrane based techniques. The present review paper thus
elucidates the contributions of membrane technology towards textile efuent treatment and unexhausted raw materials recovery. The reuse possibilities of water recovered through membrane based
techniques, such as ultraltration and nanoltration in primary dye houses or auxiliary rinse vats have
also been explored. Advantages and bottlenecks, such as membrane fouling associated with each of these
techniques have also been highlighted. Additionally, several pragmatic models simulating transport
mechanism across membranes have been documented. Finally, various accounts dealing with technoeconomic evaluation of these membrane based textile wastewater treatment processes have been
provided.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Textile
Efuents
Membrane
Reclamation
Model
Techno-economic evaluation
1. Introduction
Today's world stands as a witness to the revolutionizing socioeconomic impacts of various industries. Unfortunately, the development of industrial sector has whipped up certain unintended
repercussions, resulting in an unavoidable trade-off between industrial progress and environmental degradation. Textile industries, for instance, are one of the largest consumers of water,
dyes and various processing chemicals that are used during the
various stages of textile processing. Subsequently, substantial
quantities of efuents are generated, mostly consisting of spent or
unutilized resources, which are not suitable for further usage. These
efuents are likely to cause environmental problems if discharged
* Corresponding author. Tel./fax: 39 0984 49 6670.

** Corresponding author. Tel.: 91 343 2754089, 91 9434788186; fax: 91 343
2547375.
E-mail addresses: umuniqueme1@gmail.com (J. Sikder), zsudip.c@gmail.com,
sudip.chakraborty@unical.it (S. Chakraborty).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2014.08.008
0301-4797/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
without prior treatment. The wastewater obtained from the textile

industry is usually rich in color, chemical oxygen demand (COD),
complex chemicals, inorganic salts, total dissolved solids (TDS), pH,
temperature, turbidity and salinity (Verma et al., 2012; CPCB, 2007).
According to the classication suggested by Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), textile wastes can be divided into four
principal categories, namely the dispersible, hard-to-treat, highvolume, and hazardous and toxic wastes (Foo and Hameed, 2010).
Among the various complex constituents present in textile wastewaters, the dyes can be inarguably considered as the most
peremptory source of contamination. The direct discharge of the
coloured textile efuent into the fresh water bodies adversely affects the aesthetic merit, water transparency and dissolved oxygen
content (Duarte et al., 2013; Wang et al., 2009). Besides, these dyes
exhibit highly complex structure, high molecular weight and low
biodegradability (Verma et al., 2012; ElDefrawy and Shaalan, 2007).
This accounts for its toxic effects on ora and fauna present in the
water bodies. Further, these dyes are mutagenic and carcinogenic
(Wang et al., 2009). The presence of these relatively recalcitrant
56
J. Dasgupta et al. / Journal of Environmental Management 147 (2015) 55e72
dyes along with inorganic salts, acids, bases and other residual
chemicals in the efuent directly discharged into the sewage networks impedes the biological treatment processes (Arslan-Alaton
et al., 2008). Also, the chance evaporation of these chemicals in to
the air we breathe or adsorption onto human skin is capable of
inducing allergic reactions (Khandegar and Saroha, 2013).
Perhaps, the greatest danger to environmental sustainability is
posed by the outrageously high amount of primary water consumption by the textile sector, which has, in all probability, resulted
in the depletion of available fresh water resources. The decit in the
availability of water can be gauged by the fact the currently the
Indian textile industry consumes 0.2 m3 of water per kg of textiles
fabricated (Parvathi et al., 2009), while generating 200e350 m3 of
wastewater per ton of nished product (Ranganathan et al., 2007).
According to the recent survey conducted by FICCI Water Mission
(2011), the water demand for the industrial sector is likely to witness a rise due to the impending industrial growth as also a signicant rise in population; this will probably account for 8.5 and
10.1 per cent of the total freshwater withdrawal in 2025 and 2050
respectively. Thus, a 4 per cent hike from the current 6 per cent
level of the total freshwater abstraction by the industries (as per
2010 statistics) is estimated. The dwindling supply of water is
hence a concomitant outcome of development of industrial sector,
and is bound to bring about a declination in the performance of the
textile sector owing to the aggravated paucity of water resources, or
deterioration in the quality of water available. These deleterious
consequences have compelled the researchers to examine the
suitability of the various conventional treatment technologies for
treating textile industry wastewater. The sole objective of such
investigations is to devise and develop a wastewater treatment
technique which is environmentally compatible, cost-effective and
at the same time successful in reducing the concentration of
various contaminants in the textile efuent to permissible levels,
which comply with the current environmental imperatives. The
efuent treatment process should also be equally adept in
reclaiming the water using in textile processing to a great extent;
such an arrangement is indispensable for sustainable development
of the industrial sector and of the country as a whole.
Various treatment techniques are in use to mitigate the

contaminant levels of textile wastewaters. Table 1 provides a
broad overview of the various conventional as well as recently
engineered treatment processes employed to bring about the
treatment of textile efuents. However, these methods suffer from
certain serious handicaps. For instance, the otherwise eco-friendly
biological processes, such as the conventional activated sludge
systems (Lotito et al., 2012b, 2011) or anaerobic textile waste
bioremediation processes (Trgay et al., 2011) often lack exibility; their respective efciencies are adversely affected by the
biologically persistent constitution of the pollutants present in the
textile wastewater as well as by the diurnal uctuation in the
problem environment in terms of variation in wastewater pH,
temperature or concentration of contaminants in the textile
wastewaters (Kapdan et al., 2000; Oller et al., 2011). Additionally,
these biological treatment methods do not bring about complete
mineralization of the target dye contaminants. Hence, the toxicity
of the discharged efuent is often exacerbated by the chance
regeneration of the primary organic constituents of the textile
dyes. This drawback severely impedes the scale-up of the biological treatment technique due to the resulting reactor instability
(ElDefrawy and Shaalan, 2007; Robinson et al., 2001). The complex
rheology of the textile discharge therefore entails either singular
or combined application of the physicochemical methods, such as
chlorination, coagulationeocculation (Al-Ani and Li, 2012; Gao
et al., 2007; Yang et al., 2013), adsorption (Mezohegyi et al.,
2012) and advanced oxidation processes, such as, ozonation
(Somensi et al., 2010), Fenton treatments (Karthikeyan et al., 2011),
electro-Fenton methods (Yu et al., 2013), photo-Fenton oxidation
processes (Punzi et al., 2012), and photoelectrocatalytic reaction
(Sapkal et al., 2012), for complete degradation of the toxic textile

wastewater components (Alvarez
et al., 2013; Lotito et al., 2012a;
~ o, 2014). The poOller et al., 2011; Torrades and Garca-Montan
tential of the adsorption technology remains largely untapped due
to the limitations posed by environment-friendly disposal of spent
adsorbents, difculty in regeneration of spent adsorbents, reduction in reactivated adsorbent efciencies, high costs of the adsorbents and the maintenance expenses involved (Robinson et al.,
Table 1
Overview of various conventional as well as recently engineered physicochemical, biological and membrane based treatment processes employed to bring about the treatment
of textile efuents.
Process adopted
Efuents characteristics
Reference
Catalytic degradation (biosynthesized silver Nanocatalysts)

Adsorption (PES/PEI nanobrous Membrane)
Catalytic ozonation (activated carbon, ceria catalysts)
Methyl orange, methylene blue and eosin Y

Anionic dyes, Sunset Yellow FCF, Fast Green FCF, Amaranth
One acid azo dye, CI Acid Blue 113, two reactive dyes,
CI Reactive Yellow 3 CI Reactive Blue 5.
Raw textile efuent obtained from a cotton textile mill
Textile azo dyes:
CI Reactive Yellow 107, CI Reactive Black 5, CI Reactive
Red 198, and CI Direct Blue 71
Real textile efuent
Vidhu and Philip, 2014

Min et al., 2012
Faria et al., 2009
Real textile efuent

Synthetic textile wastewater (Reactive Blue 49 dye (RB49)
and Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA))
Synthetic wastewater (azo dye, C.I. Reactive Black 1 (RB1))
Malpass et al., 2007

Yu et al., 2013
Real textile efuents

Azo-dye Reactive Orange 16
Remazol Red RB
Remazol Turquoise
Remazol Black RL
Remazol golden Yellow RNL
Persistent anthraquinone dye C.I. Reactive Blue 19.
Simple textile efuent (dyeing processes) complex global
efuents(dyeing, bleaching and washing outlets)
Garcia et al., 2009

Egerton and Purnama, 2014
Tabrizi et al., 2011
Adsorption (activated carbon)

Biodegradation (facultative Staphylococcus arlettae Bacterium)
Electrolysis (anode materials:

Ti/Ru0.3Ti0.7O2; Ti/Ir0.3Ti0.7O2; Ti/RuXSn1XO2, with X 0.1, 0.2 or 0.3)
Electrolysis (Ti/Ru0.3Ti0.7O2 DSA type electrode)
Electro-Fenton process
Photo-Fenton oxidation (Solar and UV-C irradiation, Zero-valent
iron (ZVI) catalyst)
Photodegradation (TiO2/H2O2 and Sunlight)
Photocatalyzed degradation (UV-C/TiO2, UV-C/H2O2 and UV-C/TiO2/H2O2)
Ozonation (Semi-batch reactor)
Ozonation (Batch reactor)

Coagulation/occulation (CF)/ Microltration (MF),
CF/ULtraltration (UF) and CF/Powdered Activated Carbon (PAC)
Ahmad and Hameed, 2009

Elisangela et al., 2009
Malpass et al., 2008
Gr
ci
c et al., 2012
Tehrani-Bagha et al., 2010

Harrelkas et al., 2009
2001; Verma et al., 2012). Advanced oxidation processes, such as,

ozonation are not economically attractive (Ong et al., 2014).
Additionally, ozonation suffers from an inconveniently short halflife and hence the technique usually exhibits inadequate decolourization efciencies for insoluble azoics and disperse dyes,
which are prone to slow reaction. Its stability, moreover, uctuates
severely with variations in temperature, pH, and salt concentrations (Robinson et al., 2001; Verma et al., 2012). The chemicals
used in operations such as coagulation and chlorination not only
increase the treatment costs, but also tend to amass by-products
and residues in bulk; these unconsumed waste products, thereafter, evolve into sources of secondary pollutants, hence resulting
in considerable declination in the recovered water quality.
Furthermore, the time consuming trials involved in selecting the
coagulant/coagulants suitable for a specic kind of efuent also
adds to the limitations of the coagulationeocculation technique
(Chakraborty, 2010; Robinson et al., 2001). Additionally, the
degradation products present in the recycled liquor, more often
than not, adsorb onto the bres during the fabrication of textiles,
and tamper with the dyeing process, to the detriment of fabric
fer et al., 2005). Also, the effectiveness of operations
quality (Scha
such as occulation is markedly curbed by the high electrolytic
strength usually observed for the textile efuents. Besides, these
chemicals and by-products generate a huge volume of sludge,
which makes sludge handling difcult and contributes signicantly to disposal costs (Somensi et al., 2010; Yang et al., 2013).
These drawbacks can be satisfactorily overcome using membrane
based wastewater treatment processes, which include microltration, ultraltration, nanoltration, reverse osmosis or hybridization of two or more of these membrane based techniques.
The membrane technology is normally hailed as clean and environmentally benign technology. The inherent simplicity of the
membrane technology, the provision of modular design for
handling large industrial-scale feed volumes, operation under
moderate temperature conditions with no phase change, and the
negligible use of additives are some of the advantageous aspects of
membrane based treatment techniques (Dutta, 2007). Besides, no
waste by-products or secondary pollutants are usually encountered; additionally, the appreciable retention efciencies and stability characterizing most of the membrane based processes under
varying experimental environment enable easy scale up of these
techniques (Dasgupta et al., 2014; Koltuniewicz and Drioli, 2008;
Ong et al., 2014) These advantages hence account for the
growing interest in membrane technology. However, a major
downside of the membrane based processes is membrane fouling
(Van der Bruggen et al., 2008). Abatement of membrane fouling
problems and reduction in membrane replacement costs can be
brought about by regular cleaning of membranes and appropriate
selection of the membrane ltration techniques, in accordance
with the textile waste stream characteristics (Cheng et al., 2012;
Dutta, 2007). Furthermore, the initial capital or start-up costs
are offset by the expenses saved in terms of competent reuse of
salts, sizable recovery of dyes and water (Kurt et al., 2012; Qin
et al., 2007). The reclaimed water is usually characterized by low
hardness making it suitable for reuse in textile facilities
(Ranganathan et al., 2007). Additionally, the relatively short
payback period witnessed in many membrane based technoeconomical investigations has made the membrane based treatment processes comparatively more cost-effective than other
energy-intensive processes, such as evaporation (Praneeth et al.,
2014); the operational cost advantages over conventional treatment methods is also an added benet. The membrane based
techniques are hence currently viewed as technologically and
economically lucrative options for industrial efuents treatment;
the textile industry is one of the principal beneciaries of the
57
membrane based treatment processes (Fersi et al., 2005;

Koltuniewicz, and Drioli, 2008; Marcucci et al., 2002).
The present review paper explores the degree of success achieved by several membrane based ltration processes in bringing
about appreciable reduction of the various contaminants present in
the textile efuents below permissible levels. This critical assessment also seeks solutions to the problems faced by membrane
technology from the analyses outlined in various investigations
reported in literature. Archival reports on the methods or feasible
modications applied to enhance the economic viability of these
techniques have also been assayed.
2. Various stages of textile manufacturing industry:
composition and characteristics of the generated wastewaters
The processing techniques used in the various textile mills can
be broadly classied as wet processing and dry processing, in
accordance with the properties of the efuents generated therein
(Verma et al., 2012). Efuents generated in textile mills, especially
in the wet processing ones vary greatly in composition and degree
of toxicity, depending on the recipes of raw materials administered,
specic processes in operation, the current processing stage under
consideration, the machineries and equipment employed, the
quality of the water used for processing and the prevalent management theory implemented to monitor water use; whereas, dry
processing units mostly generate solid wastes comprising fabric
rejects (US EPA, 1996; Volmajer Valh et al., 2011). The textile industries have been unanimously proclaimed as water intensive
industries. Water is mostly used for scrubbing the raw material and
for steps that require ushing; desizing, scouring or kiering,
bleaching, mercerizing, dyeing, washing, neutralization, and salt
bath are mostly the process steps that use water. Fig. 1 demonstrates the entire chain of steps involved in textile manufacturing;
stages requiring water have been especially highlighted. However,
as mentioned earlier, the water consumption varies with each
process scaffold. For instance, certain operations such as dyeing and
print after washing are more water intensive than the others (US
EPA, 1996). Furthermore, raw materials, such as wool and felted
fabrics consume more water than synthetic bres, to full their
high scouring needs. Additionally, different types of processing
equipment demand varying water requirements in accordance
with the degree of technological constraints encountered; for
example, hank machines and dyeing winches are the biggest water
consumers, with water consumption ranging from 0.02 to 0.03 m3/
kg. But, water consumption by batch dyeing machines for knitwear
has declined from 0.03 m3/kg to only 0.006 m3/kg of treated material over the last four decades due to technological advancements
(Volmajer Valh et al., 2011). Hence, the heterogeneity observed in
the composition as well as in the ecotoxicological effects of the
textile efuents discharged from varies sources can be attributed to
a number of factors. These parameters include the type and dosage
of the selected raw materials, which are in turn governed by the
specic techniques and machineries adopted in each mill, the
processing stage under consideration and desired quality to be
imparted to the manufactured fabrics.
2.1. Wastewater in textile industries
Wastewater from textile sector comprises process water,
cleaning water, non-contact cooling water, and storm water (Verma
et al., 2012). Major contribution to the total amount of textile
wastewater generated is made by the processing stages, which
include scouring, dyeing, printing, nishing, and washing (Li et al.,
2012). The volume and composition of wastewater exhibit wide
heterogeneity, owing to a number of factors, including the
58
Fig. 1. Flowchart for the general steps in textile fabrication (Volmajer Valh et al., 2011).
characteristic quality imparted to processed fabric, properties and

chemical and physical characteristics of the applied dye, nature of
special nishing if any specicity of the process, the equipment
used, and the principles on which water use has been modelled. For
instance, signicant generators of large-volume wastes include
wash water from preparation and continuous dyeing, alkaline
wastewater resulting from bre preparation and batch dye wastewater containing large amounts of residual dye, salts, acids, or
alkalis, and other noxious additives in smaller amounts (Volmajer

Valh et al., 2011); also operations such as dyeing, printing and
nishing are mostly accountable for the deleterious rise in
biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand
(COD), total dissolved solids (TDS) and total suspended solids (TSS);
unusual exhibition of acidity or alkalinity is thereby witnessed,
owing to the presence of toxics such as metals, salts, unused dyes,
surfactants and any other organic and inorganic processing
assistance such as spent solvents. Besides, residual chemicals such

as batch dumps, knitting lubricants, insecticide residues, pectin,
wax, disinfectants, detergents, starch-sizing agents and other
organic and inorganic stabilizers obtained from operations such as
bleaching and desizing, are other primary sources of biological
oxygen demand (BOD) of textile wastewaters. Incidentally, desizing
accounts for about 50% of the entire textile wastewater generated
(Babu et al., 2007; Volmajer Valh et al., 2011). Table 2 lists the
characteristic parameters of textile wastewater obtained from the
various stages of textile processing.
3. Membrane based processes
As already mentioned earlier, traditional treatment techniques
suffer from a number of loopholes. The application of membrane
based processes in such cases can quite effectively surmount most
of these drawbacks. Fig. S1 (Appendix S1) delineates the textile
efuent treatment scheme adopted by Arulpuram Common
Efuent Treatment Plant, Tirupur, Tamil Nadu, operating under
Zero Liquid Discharge conditions. The conceptual ow diagram in
Fig. S1 reveals that the treatment facility has been broadly compartmentalized divided into three sections, namely pre-treatment;
membrane based recycling unit, chiey consisting of two-stage
reverse osmosis (RO) unit optionally followed by NF and reject
management section succeeding the recycling plant (Ranganathan
et al., 2007; Singhal and Gupta (RSPCB), 2010). Tables S1 and S2 in
the supplementary material (Appendix S1) provide an insight into
the characteristics of the textile efuents observed at the inlet and
outlet of Arulpuram CETP (Singhal and Gupta (RSPCB), 2010) and
Jasol CETP, Rajasthan (Garrett et al., 2012) respectively. A meticulous comparison between the performances of Arulpuram CETP
(Table S1) and that of Jasol CETP, Rajasthan (Table S2) indexes the
difference in the quality of process water reclaimed in each of these
CETPs in terms of the levels of various parameters, such as colour,
TDS, TSS, etc.; these observations highlight the fact that the incorporation of membrane technology in the Arulpuram CETP scheme
signicantly enhanced the quality of the recovered process water,
as compared to the engineered Jasol CETP scheme, wherein the TDS
and TSS levels marginally increase following secondary treatment
through sequencing batch reactor (SBR) and secondary clarier.
Additionally, minimal use of toxic chemicals such as chlorine makes
Arulpuram CETP technology innocuous and environmentally
benign. Furthermore, sizable recovery of salts and water (approximately 85%) is also achieved in the subsequent RO reject management section. This approach hence satises the stringent discharge
limits promulgated by environmental regulations and the technoeconomic effectiveness incurred by minimization of end of the
pipe-treatment.
59
The choice of suitable membrane technologies depends on the

membrane material which is in turn governed by certain vital
membrane properties such as it chemical, mechanical and thermal
resistance and the membrane susceptibility to fouling; besides, the
membrane pore size, which determines the substances that can be
effectively retained and membrane shape, which indicates its potential to resist clogging are other important parameters that have
to be taken into consideration (Koltuniewicz, and Drioli, 2008;
fer et al., 2005). Moreover, management of membrane
Scha
concentrate streams containing target materials from the feed
stream and other auxiliary chemicals added for treatment also
poses an arduous challenge to the successful application of membrane based separation processes. Hence, the additional membrane
concentrate treatment options have to be explored in terms of cost,
energy-intensiveness, efciency and environmental benignity prior
to the discharge of the membrane residuals to the environment
(Chelme-Ayala et al., 2009). For instance, direct disposal of the NF
and RO concentrates obtained from exhausted dyebath treatment is
not an eco-friendly option, given the complex rheology of the
concentrates, composed of organic constituents (dyes and additives
such as antifoam agents) and inorganic salt components. Reuse of
this highly colored waste stream is rendered impossible given the
heterogeneity of its constituents, often modied by reactions such
as hydrolysis (Van der Bruggen et al., 2003). Bioremediation of the
retained dyes through activated sludge system is often not very
effective owing to the recacitrancy of the dyes present; in such
cases anaerobic degradation used in association with the membrane based processes can be a viable option. Options such as,
ozonation and other advanced oxidation techniques, although
effective in oxidizing colour, are quite cost-intensive. Bio-decoloring or biosorption coupled with enzyme catalysed degradation are
other effective treatment options (Van der Bruggen et al., 2003).
However, given the inexibilities of these biological techniques,
membrane distillation (MD) of the NF and RO concentrates followed by incineration of MD concentrates is currently viewed as
the most promising scenario, owing to the associated benet/cost
ratio of 3.58 (Vergili et al., 2012). The success of the ZLD approach in
such congurations is however governed by the membrane distillation process, which dictates 70e90% of the benet/cost ratio. The
MD distillate is reused in the nishing process, while the valueadded energy recovery from the subsequent incineration process
offsets the energy consumption in the various other stages of textile
efuent treatment (Van der Bruggen et al., 2008).
3.1. Microltration
Microltration has limited application in textile wastewater
treatment because of its close resemblance to conventional crude
Table 2
Characteristics of textile wastewater obtained from different stages of textile processing (data compiled from Khandegar and Saroha, 2013; Volmajer Valh et al., 2011; Ciabatti
et al., 2010; Chakraborty, 2010).
Characteristics
Scouring
Bleaching
Mercerising
Dyeing
Composite
Discharge limit into public

sewage Bureau of Indian
Standards (BIS-3306-1955)
Maximum permissible
limit for water reuse
(Chakraborty, 2010)
pH
TDS (mg/L)
TSS (mg/L)
Color
9e14
12,000e30,000
1000e2000
e
8.5e11
2500e11,000
200e400
e
8e10
2000e2600
600e1900
Highly
colored
1.5e10
1500e4000
50e350
Strongly
colored
5.5e9.0
2100
100
Colorless
6.5e9.2
e
e
Colorless
BOD (mg/L)
COD (mg/L)
Chlorides (mg/L)
Sulphates (mg/L)
2500e3500
10,000e20,000
e
100e500
1200e1600
e
50e120
250e400
350e700
100e350
100e400
400e1400
e
1.9e13
2900e10,000
100e700
Strongly colored
(>14,000
PteCo units)
50e550
250e8000
100e500
50e300
30
250e500
600e1000
1000
e
e
600
400
60
ltration processes (Mulder, 1996). Microltration membranes

usually have pore sizes in the range 0.1e10 mm; separation through
microltration is usually effected at a low pressure differential
within 2 bar (Dutta, 2007). These features account for its restricted
implementation in textile industry. It is mainly used for removal of
particles suspension and colloidal dyes from exhausted dye bath
and from discarded rinsing bath discharge; microltration membranes, however, permit the unconsumed auxiliary chemicals,
dissolved organic pollutants and other soluble contaminants to
escape with the permeate (Juang et al., 2013; Koltuniewicz, and
Drioli, 2008). Hence, microltration is seldom used as an unaided
independent treatment technique for remediation of complex industrial wastewater such as textile efuents. As such, it is mostly
employed as a pre-treatment step in hybrid systems so as to
complement other concomitant processes which normally target
dyes and other soluble pollutants, but fail to remove the suspended
particulate matter present in wastewater. For instance, Ellouze et al.
(2012) compared the textile wastewater treatment performances
using coagulation/occulation/nanoltration, and microltration/
nanoltration and observed that for the same volume reduction
factor (VRF) of about 8, the nanoltration permeate ux obtained
for feed pre-treated by microltration (34 L/h m2) was relatively
higher than the permeate ux of 14 L/h m2 obtained for feed
efuent pre-treated using coagulation/occulation. This observation was attributed to the considerable retention of color, turbidity,
COD and salinity brought about by microltration pre-treatment as
opposed to the presence of huge quantities of colloidal matter in
the feed undergoing coagulation pre-treatment; the colloidal
matter present further aggravated the fouling of the nanoltration
membranes. The study, thus established the superiority of microltration over coagulationeocculation as the pre-treatment step
prior to nanoltration, for treating textile wastewaters. Microltration can also be used as a post treatment step while treating
industrial efuents. For example, Juang et al. (2013) designed a
single reactor by combining electrooxidation using BDD/Ti anode
and ceramic membrane microltration to concurrently remove
soluble organic matters and suspended particulate matters, represented by AY-36 azo dye and kaolin respectively, from model
textile wastewater. The objective in all these cases was to integrate
two suitable treatment methods, which complemented each other
by catering to the removal of soluble contaminants on the one hand
and targeting the particulate suspensions on the other. Table S3 in
the supplementary data (Appendix S1) summarizes the ndings of
some of the experimental investigations carried out to validate the
applicability of microltration in textile efuent treatment.
Recently, attempts have been made to fabricate modied
microltration membranes which can single-handedly attend to
industrial textile wastewater treatment. Asymmetric tubular carbon microltration membranes were developed by Tahri et al.
(2013), using mineral coal powder and thermosetting resin. The
as-fabricated membranes were successfully applied to treat industrial textile efuents and achieved satisfactory permeate ux
and pollutants removal efciency, thus bringing about 50% removal
of COD, while 30% of the existing salinity was retained; turbidity
and colour were almost entirely rejected. Fig. 2 illustrates the
experimental apparatus adopted for this research. In another
investigation, Daraei et al. (2013) quantied the performance of
thin lm composite (TFC) membrane, novelly engineered using
organoclay/chitosan nanocomposite coated on the commercial
polyvinylidene uoride (PVDF) microltration membrane, in
retaining methylene blue dye from aqueous solutions. Novel composite membranes were fabricated by Baburaj et al. (2012) from
polyamide microltration membranes by amalgamating two
cationic (poly(ethyleneimine)-PEI, chitosan-CHI) and an anionic
(poly (acrylic acid)-PAA) polyelectrolyte through layer-by-layer
Fig. 2. Schematic of the pilot plant set up for cross-ow mode of microltration
(temperature: 25 C, trans-membrane pressure (TMP): range 1e5 bars (Tahri et al.,
2013).
(LbL) assembly. Two representative textile efuents, methylene

blue (MB) and Coomassie brilliant blue (CBB), were employed to
evaluate the removal efciency of the membranes thus developed.
The PAA/CHI multilayers achieved a moderate 79.9% CB removal, a
satisfactory 87.1% CBB retention and a reasonable 95.35% COD
reduction. The membrane fouling tendency was also mitigated by
means of this ingeniously engineered arrangement.
3.2. Ultraltration
Ultraltration is a membrane separation process, mostly used in
the separation of macromolecules and colloids from a solution;
solutes retained usually have molecular weights of a few thousand
Daltons (Dutta, 2007; Mulder, 1996). Although immensely successful in handling contaminants present in the wastewaters discharged from various chemical, pharmaceutical and food industries
(Arthanareeswaran et al., 2007; Huang et al., 2012), the ultraltration membrane process has limited applications in the textile
industry; this is mainly because the molecular weights of the dyes
present in the highly colored textile discharge are much lower than
the molecular weight cut-off (MWCO) of the ultraltration memfer et al., 2005). Consebranes (Ouni and Dhahbi, 2010a; Scha
quently, dye rejection brought about by ultraltration alone usually
fer et al., 2005), although higher perdoes not exceed 90% (Scha
centages of dye retention and COD removal have been reported for
hydrophobic ultraltration membranes, such as, poly-ether-sulfone
and poly(vinylidene uoride) (PVDF) UF membranes (Simoni
c,
2009; Srivastava et al., 2011). The water reclaimed through ultraltration can be reused only in subsidiary processes of the textile
industry, such as rinsing and washing, however this recovered
water is not qualied for application in primary processes such as
dying of bres, which mandate consistent supply of clean and
softened water (Chakraborty, 2010; Koltuniewicz and Drioli, 2008).
Ultraltration (UF) is usually applied as a pre-treatment step in
systems demanding high degree of process stream purication; it is
followed by processes such as nanoltration (NF), or reverse
osmosis (RO) stages, which satisfy the demands on process water
quality (Barredo-Damas et al., 2010; Simoni
c, 2009).
Several innovative measures have been examined with an
objective to improve the performance exhibited by ultraltration
technique in treating textile wastewaters.
In an investigation, Marcucci et al. (2001) engineered modules
which were innovatively congured to accommodate at ultraltration membranes which operate under vacuum. Koseoglu-Imer
(2013) prepared polysulfone (PS) membranes at different evaporation temperatures by phase inversion process and examined the
observed concomitant variation in the properties and textile efuents removal efciencies of the as-fabricated membranes.
Some of the other reported novel mechanisms include polymer/
polyelectrolyte enhanced ultraltration (PEUF), which involves the
complexation of dyes with high molecular weight polymers, followed by ultraltration (Mondal et al., 2012; Tan et al., 2006), and
micellar enhanced ultraltration (MEUF), wherein, surfactants at a
concentration exceeding its critical micelle concentration (CMC) is
added to a contaminated aqueous solution to form micelles that
solubilise organic solutes, which are subsequently separated using
ultraltration (Zaghbani et al., 2008). For instance, Ounia and
Dhahbi (2010b) obtained high 99% and 90% dye rejections,
respectively, for Safranin T (ST) and Eriochrome Blue Black R (EBBR)
dyes by means of PEUF, using poly (ammonium-acrylate) anionic
polymer.
However, conventional polymeric membranes often fail to
withstand the testing conditions of the problem environment due
to their low resistance to chemicals such as organic solvents, high
temperatures or acidic and caustic nature of the solutions (BarredoDamas et al., 2012). Moreover, progressive membrane fouling and
the consequent reduction in permeate ux are common, yet serious
61
handicaps suffered by membrane technology; these drawbacks are

inimical to membrane integrity and permeability and eventually
lead to considerable decline in the membrane performance. Subsequently signicant economic losses are incurred over the entire
operational time. This necessitates the introduction of hybrid processes, where ultraltration is preceded by a suitable feed pretreatment process such as, occulation (Simonic and Lobnik, 2011).
Continuous evolution of the membrane technology has facilitated the development of modied membranes which have been
streamlined to exhibit satisfactory resistance to fouling; such
modications have introduced certain novel characteristics in the
conventional UF membranes, which have enhanced the competence of ultraltration in regard to toxic textile efuents treatment. For example, Srivastava et al. (2011) examined the surface
modication of PVDF membranes with varying concentrations of
commercially available SAN, an inexpensive copolymer of styrene. The as-fabricated membranes were used to remove colour
and COD from aqueous RB5 and CR dye solutions; the synthetic
textile wastewater was modelled according to the specications
reported in the collected data, for dye concentrations present in
the discharged textile wastewaters from local dyeing companies
and common efuent treatment plants (CETPs) in Karur, India.
Table 3 lists the various other research works carried out to
Table 3
Synopsis of the various studies carried out on the applicability of ultraltration in textile efuents treatment.
Process description
Membrane specication
Efuents present
Component(s) removed
Permeate ux
Reference
Ultraltration (closed-loop
recycle)
Membrane: Commercial
charged MWCO: 400 Da
Reactive dye (textile yarn

and fabric dyeing)
>98% dye rejection

>90% electrolyte discharge
reduction
Erswell et al.,
1988
Ultraltration
Polysulfone
Ultraltration
Membrane
MWCO > 700 Da
Tubular module
1. Direct Green G, Direct

Black Meta, Eriochrome
Black T.
2. Raw textile efuents
(spent dyebath)
Micellar enhanced
ultraltration (MEUF)
(Unstirred batch)
Cationic CPC Surfactant.
Organic
Polyamide
Membrane
MWCO: 1000 Da
Aqueous acid dye eosin

solution
Flux:
1. Inversely
proportional to CPC
loading;
2. Directly proportional
to operating pressure.
Purkait et al.,
2004a
Micellar enhanced
Surfactants: SDS, CTAB,
TX-100.
Electrolyte: NaCl
Micellar enhanced
Cationic CPC Surfactant.
MW 358.01
Regenerated cellulose
membrane
MWCO: 10 kDa (cross-ow
ultraltration)
Aqueous cationic dye

methylene blue (MB)
solution
>97% dye (MW > 780)

Rejection.
Optimum ow velocity:
0.76 m/s
COD removal:
75e85%
TOC removal:
50e60%
Retention at 276 kPa:
10% (without surfactant);
73.4% (with surfactant
micelles).
Optimal surfactant-to dye
ratio: 2000
90% surfactant recovery.
Highest (>97%) retention
(anionic surfactant)
Optimal pH range: 2e11
Flux:
10 L/m2 h
High water recovery
(<90%)
Volume ux:
0.8e1.0 m3/m2 d
Flux inversely
proportional to
surfactant/electrolyte
concentration.
Zaghbani et al.,
2007
GN polymeric membrane
MWCO: 10,000 Da
Permeability:
6.28 1011 m/Pa s (deadend ultraltration)
ZnAl2O4eTiO2 membrane
with a zirconia
microltration interlayer
on Moroccan clay
macroporous substructure
MWCO: 4500 Da
Average pore diameter:
5 nm
Permeability:
0.26 1010 m/Pa s
Commercial Multichannel
tubular ceramic membrane
MWCO: 150 kDa
Permeability:
4.04 1010 m/Pa s
(145.4 L/(m2 h bar)).
Reactive Black 5 (RB5 MW:

991.82) and Reactive
Orange 16 (RO16 MW:
617.54)
99.7% RB5 rejection

(loading: 1.00 g/L)
99.6% RO16 rejection
(loading: 0.05 g/L)
Ahmad et al.,
2006
Salts ((NaCl, CaCl2, Na2SO4,

CaSO4)
cationic dye methylene
blue, (MB) (orange acid
(OA)
60e93% salt rejection

60e80% (approx.) dye
rejection
Flux decreases with

time and increasing
CPC concentration
Flux increases with
pressure
Flux inversely
proportional to
concentration
Reactive Black 5 (RB5) dye

solution (50e500 mg/L)
Maximum 95.2% dye

rejection
Optimal transmembrane
pressure (TMP): 4 bar
Optimal cross-ow velocity
(CFV): 2.53 m/s
Tangential ultraltration
with recycling
conguration
Ultraltration
Maximum ux:
255.86 L/(m2 h)
MajewskaNowak et al.,
1989
Saffaj et al.,
2005
AlventosadeLara et al.,
2012
62
estimate the competence of ultraltration in textile wastewater

treatment.
Furthermore, recently, the potential of ceramic membranes as
viable replacements of polymer membranes in the UF pretreatment step was investigated; the preference of ceramic
membranes over ordinary polymer membranes was based on
their exhibition of comparatively high permeability rates and
several other advantageous properties they are endowed with,
such as, high mechanical, chemical, and thermal stability
(Barredo-Damas et al., 2010). Fig. 3 illustrates the schematic diagram for the experimental set up of the UF pilot plant employed
to study the effect of varying cross ow velocities on the performance of three commercial ceramic membranes with molecular weight cut-offs (MWCOs) of 30, 50 and 150 kDa, respectively.
The membranes successfully removed 99% of the turbidity while
the % retention of the colour constituents ranged between 84 and
98%. The observations established the ceramic UF membranes
under scrutiny as feasible pre-treatment alternatives for textile

wastewater management. The advantageous aspects of ceramic
ultraltration membranes have sparked interest in many researchers; as a result, extensive experimentation has been
recently carried out to validate the suitability of these membranes in treating recalcitrant efuents, such as textile wastewaters. For instance, a study conducted by Zuriaga-Agust et al.
(2014) examined the separation efciency and fouling propensity of tubular ceramic ultraltration membranes employed to
treat simulated textile wastewater characterized by a binary
foulant system; the model textile efuent consisted of an azo dye
and carboxymethyl cellulose sodium salt (CMC) as the primary
colloidal and organic foulants respectively. The membranes
exhibited excellent organic matter and dye rejection efciencies
(above 98.5% and 93% respectively). Additionally, an initial sharp
drop in the permeate ux prole was ascribed to rapid blockage
of pores.
Fig. 3. Schematic representation of the experimental UF pilot plant set up (Barredo-Damas et al., 2010).
3.3. Nanoltration
Nanoltration (NF) membrane process is characteristically
placed between ultraltration and reverse osmosis (Dutta, 2007).
Its growing popularity over the years as an effective yet simplied
textile efuents treatment technology can be attributed to the
several benets it offers in terms of environmental pollution
abatement, rejection, recovery and reuse of textile dyes, divalent
salts and other auxiliary chemicals, recovery and reuse of brine.
Additionally, the production of quality permeate allows the reuse of
treated wastewaters in major processes such as dyeing and nishing (Koltuniewicz, and Drioli, 2008). Nanoltration operates at a
relatively low pressure, which ranges from 500 to 1000 kPa; it
enables low retention of monovalent ions, which enhances the
scope for low brine rejection and reuse, while permitting almost
100% rejection of multivalent ions, thus resulting in high solute
selectivity. The rejection of species in nanoltration is governed
mostly by steric and charge repulsion. Other advantageous attributes of nanoltration include its high solvent permeability,
retention of dissolved uncharged solutes such as organic molecules,
with molecular weight greater than 150 Da, modular construction
facilitating scale up, ease of chemical cleaning and the ability of NF
membranes to withstand high temperature, up to about 70 C,
fer
which reduces the energy consumed to heat fresh water (Scha
et al., 2005; Yu et al., 2012).
A number of such investigations have explored the various options available for the enhancement of nanoltration process performance in the eld of textile efuents treatment (Khouni et al.,
2011). Yu et al. (2012) examined the performance of submerged
nanoltration of anionic dye aqueous solutions through sodium
carboxymethyl cellulose (CMCNa)/polypropylene (PP) thin-lm
composite hollow bre membranes; the process was viewed as a
benecial amalgamation of hollow bre membrane conguration
and submerged membrane ltration technology. The hollow bre
membranes are often preferred to at-sheet membranes, because
of their enhanced energy efciency coupled with high surface to
volume ratio; submerged membrane ltration technology, on the
other hand, delivers advantages such as relatively lower energy
consumption and cleaning requirements than that of tangential
ltration mode. It was observed that, the negatively charged
CMCNa/PP composite hollow bre membrane having a MWCO of
about 700 Da, was satisfactorily effective in rejection of anionic
dyes (Congo red and Methyl blue) from aqueous solution at neutral
pH. The percentage dye retention, salt rejection rate and water ux
63
for an aqueous solution containing 2000 mg/L Congo red and

10,000 mg/L NaCl were 99.8%,, lower than 2.0%, and 7.0 L/m2 h bar
respectively. Electrostatic repulsion between the dye molecules and
the negatively charged surface of the innovatively fabricated
membrane was considered as the principal mechanism governing
the submerged nanoltration of saline anionic dye aqueous solutions in the present study.
In another study, Bes-Pi
a et al. (2010) evaluated the performance of each of the six different spirally wound NF membranes,
namely, TFC-SR2, ESNA, NF270, DS-5 DK, DS-5 DL and Duraslick, in
treating secondary textile efuents. The behaviour of all the six NF
membranes were investigated over a wide range of volume concentration factors (VCF) and the resulting variation in membrane
fouling tendency and permeate characteristics were examined.
cnica de Valencia designed
Fig. 4 illustrates the Universidad Polite
pilot plant employed to carry out the nanoltration experiments.
The results obtained showed that for all the membranes, normalised ux declined with a corresponding increase in VCF.
Nanoltration membrane charge has signicant inuence solute
rejection and reuse of treated textile discharge. However, most of
the commercially available nanoltration membranes are found to
be negatively charged at normal operating conditions with low
value pH isoelectric point (Cheng et al., 2012). Very few studies
have focused on exploring the performance and the avenues of
application that a positively charged nanoltration membrane can
possibly have. However, recently a revival of interest has been
witnessed in positively charged nanoltration membranes and
their probable applications. Positively charged nanoltration
membranes hold singular promise in the eld of colour removal
from dilute wastewater obtained from textile industries, owing to
their outstanding hydrophilicity and high multivalent cation
retention capacity, which facilitate the recovery of reusable
cationic macromolecules and rejection of dyes (Yan et al., 2008).
For instance, an unconventional self-assembled positively charged
NF membrane (PA6DT-C), originally fabricated in the Swansea
laboratory was characterized by Cheng et al. (2012) and its performance was evaluated based on the extent of Methylene Blue
(MB) retention and recovery from simulated dye house wastewater. The magnitude of the effective membrane charge density of
this novel PA6DT-C membrane was found to be superior to that
obtained for two commercially available membranes (Desal-DK
and Nanomax-50); also, the membrane ux (~17 LMH/bar) obtained was relatively higher compared to that observed for the
commercial NF membranes (~5 LMH/bar). Excellent performance
cnica de Valencia (Bes-Pia et al., 2010).

Fig. 4. Experimental pilot plant set-up for NF experiments engineered in the Universidad Polite
64
Table 4
Detailed insight into the various studies carried out different researchers on the use of nanoltration for remediation of textile wastewater.
Process description
Efuents present
Permeate ux
Reference
Ultraltration (UF) and

nanoltration (NF)
UF stage: spiral-wound
polyethersulfone (PES)
MWCO: 1 kDa
NF stage: commercial
spiral-wound (2), NF270
and
Duraslick NF
Three at sheet NF
membranes: Desal-5, NE70 and TS-40
Raw efuents (textile

nishing industry)
High color, COD and

turbidity removal (NF)
71% salts rejection (NF270)
54% conductivity reduction
(Duraslick NF)
Maximal permeate ux
(UF) at pH 11
No signicant effect of pH
on NF permeate ux.
Flux (NF270) > (30%) ux
(Duraslick NF)
Alcaina-Miranda
et al., 2009
Textile efuent (dyeing

facility)
>99% dye removal

Rejection (NE70) > rejection (Desal-5)
Turbidity, hardness, TOC
and color removal: <0.2
NTU, 60 mg/L as CaCO3,
10 mg/L and 5 HU,
respectively.
99 % COD reduction.
Maximum (95e97%) salt
rejection (NF90).
Permeate conductivity
(NF90) < 500 mS/cm.
UF pre-treatment: 40% COD
reduction
COD retentions:
80e100% (UF and NF).
Conductivity rates (80%)
and Decolorization rates :
>90% (NF).
Flux (NE-70) twice ux

(Desal-5)
Qin et al., 2007
Flux trend:
J (NF270) > J (NF200) > J
(NF90).
UF pre-treatment: NF
permeate ux increase
(50%)
Goz
alvez-Zafrilla
et al., 2008
Affected by efuent
complexity
Aouni et al., 2012
Textile wastewater
reclamation
Direct NF and UF/NF
Fouling tendency
examination
Ultraltration (UF) and
nanoltration (NF).
Transmembrane
pressure range
UF: 2e7 bar
NF: 4e15 bar.
Reactive dye printing
compounds removal
by nanoltration
(NF).
Cross-ow velocities:
0.4, 0.6 and 0.8 m/s
Pressures (2e15 bar).
Dye wastewater reuse
1. Comparison between
tertiary treatment
processes:
nanoltration (NF)
and reverse osmosis
(RO)
2. UF/NF
and UF/RO comparison
Nanoltration using
novelly fabricated
membranes.
Membranes (NF): NF90,

NF200 and NF270
Set up: pilot plant
Flat- sheet module
Membrane: NF90-2540
Spiral-wound module
Secondary textile efuent

(cotton thread factory).
Efuent COD: 200 mg O2/L
TDS: 5000 mg/L
NF: commercial (NF200 and

NF270).
UF: polyethersulfone
(10 kDa and 1 kDa)
Reactive azo dyes:

Everzol Black, Everzol Red,
and Everzol Blue.
Raw textile efuents
(rinsing baths)
NFT-50 membrane.
Plate and frame module.
Reactive dyes : C.I. Reactive

Red 24, C.I. Reactive Orange
12, C.I. Reactive Blue 19, C.I.
Reactive Black 5
Dye rejection:
99.4e99.9%.
Electrolyte retention: 63
e73%.
Organics retention: 20e50%
50% Permeate ux decline

(adsorption and
concentration polarization.
Petrini
c et al., 2007
Nanoltration polyamide
(PA) composite membranes
MWCO: 500 Da.
Separate aqueous solutions

of 5 different dyes: Direct
Red 75, 80 and 81.
Direct Yellow 8 and 27.
Model dyeing wastewater:
Direct Red 75, PVA, NaCl
and Na2SO4
Raw efuents (denim fabric
dyeing factory)
Almost 100% dyes rejection.

Retention efciency
improvement after
coagulation (alum) pretreatment
20% ux improvement after

coagulation (alum) pretreatment
Mo et al., 2008
NF permeate quality
relatively superior.
COD < 90 mg/L.
60% TDS rejection above
9 bar.
Permeate hardness:
70 mg/L
11 bar pressure:
9% permeate yield (NF) < 4%
permeate yield (RO)
Ben Amar et al.,

2009
Dyes: Acid red 4, Acid

orange 10, Direct red 80,
Disperse blue 56, Reactive
orange 16.
Salts: Na2SO4, NaCl
97% dye retention

(0.4 MPa).
Fouling tendency
(photografted
membrane) < fouling
tendency (commercial
polyamide membrane
Desal SDK
99% color rejection
(DK 1073 and NF 45).
87% COD reduction
(DK 1073)
Fouling tendency (all the
test membranes)
0.23e0.28 m3/m2 day

(0.4 MPa)
Akbari et al., 2002a
30.5e70 L/h m2
Lopes et al., 2005
Declining ux prole
(fouling)
Akbari et al., 2002b
1. NF membrane: HL (at
sheet).
2. NF membrane: HL2514TF
(spiral-wound)
MWCO: 150e300 Da.
3. RO membrane:
AG2514TF
Congurations: dead end
and cross-ow
UV-photografting (sodium
p-styrene sulfonate
monomer on polysulfone
UF membrane.
MWCO: 1200e1300 Da
Colour and COD

rejection
Spiral wound membranes:

MPS 31 (MWCO: not
available)
NF 45 (MWCO: 200 Da)
DK 1073 (MWCO: 300 Da)
Cross-ow conguration
Textile dye treatment

(polyamide based
nanoltration
membrane)
Membrane: Desal 5DK

MWCO: 150e300 Da
Waste waters: 1. Remazol

Yellow 3 RS, Remazol BTE
Red 3 BS
2. Remazol BTE Blue, RN
Special Remazol, BTE Red 3
BS
3. Remazol Black, Remazol
BTE Red 3 BS
Salts: NaCl, CaCl2, Na2SO4
High molecular weight
Direct dyes: direct red 80,
direct yellow 8. Anionic
dyes: acid orange 10, acid
red 4 Cationic dye: Basic
blue 3 Disperse dye:
~100% dye rejection

Rejection (pH 3) <Rejection
(pH 6) (anionic dyes)
Rejection (pH 6) < Rejection
(pH 3) (cationic dyes)
65
Table 4 (continued )
Process description
Efuents present
Disperse blue 56
Reactive dye: Reactive
orange 16
Reactive black dye
(Cibacron Black B), Reactive
red dye (Cibacron Red RB)
Permeate ux
Reference
94 and 92% dye retentions

(reactive black and reactive
red dye respectively. 94%
COD reduction
Flux prole: (i) rise with

increase in transmembrane pressure (ii) fall
with time and increasing
feed concentration
Average ux at 500 kPa:
59.58e78.4%
Mean waterux
recovery:99%
Hydraulic permeability:
0.48e0.56 m3/m2 day
Chakraborty et al.,
2003
Color removal and COD

reduction
Membrane: organic
membrane (unstirred batch
and rectangular cross ow
mode) MWCO: 400 Da
Cross ow
nanoltration
Flat sheet polysulfone

based thin lm composite
(TFC-SR2) nanolter,
CI reactive black 5 (Bayer,

Sydney), Salt: NaCl
Average dye rejection: 98%

Average NaCl rejection:
<14%
Nanoltration
UV-photografted
nanoltration membranes
MWCO increases with
increasing hydraulic
permeability
1. Negatively charged
polypiperazine amide/poly
(phthalazinone ether
sulfone ketone) (PIP/PPESK)
NF membrane
2. Positively charged
quaternized poly
(phthalazinone ether
sulfone ketone) (QAPPESK)
membrane
Direct red 80 (DR80),

disperse blue 56 (DB56),
acid red 4 (AR4), reactive
orange 16 (RO16) and basic
blue 3 (BB3)
Synthetic Sulfur Black B dye
wastewater
Dye retention: >96% at

0.4 MPa
Nanoltration
was exhibited by the NF membrane operating at 5 bar, which

achieved a dye rejection of about 98% with a permeate ux of
approximately 17 LMH/bar. A dialtration experiment was carried
out to quantify the effectiveness of the membrane in desalting the
dye; this evaluation in turn governed the value added recovery
and reuse potential of the dye from convention dye house efuents. The results vouched for the successful application of the
fabricated PA6DT-C membrane industries such as the textile industrial sector. Table 4 documents the various other investigations
carried out by different researchers on the treatability of textile
efuents using nanoltration.
However, there are still certain unresolved issues which demand feasible solutions before going for large-scale industrial
application of nanoltration. A broad insight was provided by Van
der Bruggen et al. (2008) into some of these common impediments,
which included membrane fouling due to concentration polarization, degree of separation of target solutes, downstream treatment
requirement for concentrates, chemical resistance of membranes
and the limited membrane lifetime, insufcient rejection of contaminants; and the necessity for modelling and simulation tools.
Measures, such as, monitoring the frequency of membrane cleaning, enhanced selective separation of target solutes by exploiting
innovative membrane congurations or by means of judicious selection of membranes and application of new and exible predictive modelling techniques using equations like MaxwelleStefan
equations were adduced to widen the spectrum of application of
nanoltration, especially in the industrial sector (Van der Bruggen
et al., 2008). Additionally, the membrane hydrodynamics can be
suitably manoeuvred towards striking a balance between high dye
retention and high permeate ux accompanied with low brine
fer et al., 2005).
rejection (Scha
3.4. Reverse osmosis
Reverse osmosis (RO) is effective in removing macromolecules
as well as ions from textile discharge; the treated efuent obtained
is usually devoid of colour and has low total salinity (Koltuniewicz
and Drioli, 2008). However, the use of dense polymeric membranes
QAPPESK NF membrane
better than PIP/PPESK NF
membrane
92.3% dye
Rejection
10% salts rejection at 60 C
Flux:
14.5 L/m2 h (QAPPESK NF)
at 60 C
Tang and Chen,

2002
Akbari et al., 2006
Han et al., 2009
and the high osmotic pressure build up due to presence of high salt
concentrations considerably delimit the permeate ux, and at
times serious fouling takes place, which affects the membrane
performance. Hence, in RO, trans-membrane pressures greater than
2000 kPa are necessary in order to maintain reasonable permeate
ux, which again deals a severe blow to the process economics
(Sch
afer et al., 2005).
Liu et al. (2011) conducted a comparative assessment of the
effectiveness exhibited by nanoltration and reverse osmosis in
treating biologically remediated textile efuent, based on the
evaluation of the permeate quality obtained from each of the processes; the permeate was tested for permeate ux, COD and BOD
removal and salinity content. Cross-ow ltration tests of the
textile efuent were carried out using BW30 reverse osmosis and
NF90 nanoltration at-sheet membranes over a wide range of
concentration ratios and under different hydrodynamic conditions.
The treated process streams, in both the cases, satised the reclamation criteria, and reusable water of good quality thus generated
with each of the membranes, could hence be recycled to textile
processes such as washing and dyeing, thereby saving on water and
energy consumption and further costs involved in downstream
treatment of water.
Nataraj et al. (2009) further elaborated the performance-wise
difference between nanoltration and reverse osmosis by conducting a comparative study based on the rejection efciency of the
NF and RO modules. Therein the effectiveness of spiral wound NF
and RO modules, which constituted a pilot plant, were evaluated in
treating a simulated contaminated wastewater mixture in terms of
colour and Na2SO4 salt rejection over varying feed concentrations
and feed pressure with methyl orange (MO) as the model dye
compound. Fig. 5 shows the schematic of the pilot plant used along
with its NF and RO modules. The rejection of methyl orange obtained through RO (99.99%) was slightly higher than the rejection
brought about by NF (99%), while marked decline in permeate ux
could possibly be attributed to concentration polarization and
membrane fouling. Additionally, for both NF and RO experiments,
the TDS removal rates, sodium retention and overall conductivity
proles were similar to that of methyl orange dye.
66
Fig. 5. Schematic diagrams of NF and RO pilot plants (Nataraj et al., 2009).
3.5. Electrodialysis
Electrodialysis is used, rather infrequently, in the textile industries, for abatement of textile wastewater contaminants.
Detailed survey of archival literature reveals that there is a dearth of
quality studies dealing with the usage of electrodialysis based
textile efuent treatment techniques. Electrodialysis is highly
functional in removing chlorides and hence, is particularly efcacious in bringing about the legislatively prescribed remediation of
wastewaters discharged from Indian textile industries, where the
use of bulk quantities of sodium chloride (NaCl) salt is predominant. Moreover, the Electrodialysis with bipolar membranes
(EDBM) has recently attracted interest owing to its high energyefciency and cost-effectiveness as compared to the more energy-intensive
reverse
osmosis
(RO)
processes.
Chandramowleeswaran and Palanivelu (2006) investigated the
effectiveness exhibited by electrodialysis in affecting the TDS
reduction in textile efuents obtained from a common efuent
treatment plant (CETP). Treatability study of the textile efuent,
thus collected, was conducted in a laboratory scale three compartments electrodialysis system. The experiments were performed in batch, batch recirculation and continuous operative
mode under constant current with sodium chloride solution
(7500 mg/L) and sodium sulphate solution (5000 mg/L). Operating
current density, in the range 3.6e4.8 mA/cm2 was suggested for
handling textile CETP efuent with TDS around 7000 mg/L.
Electrodialysis (ED) can as well be employed to reduce the
subsequent volume load on evaporators through concentration of
rejects obtained from reverse osmosis (RO) plants. The effectiveness of electrodialysis membrane process in achieving the desired
concentration of the RO treated textile discharge was evaluated by
Praneeth et al. (2014). The possibility of generating a textile efuent
concentrate containing about 6 times the quantity of salts present
in the RO reject was explored using a bench-scale system with ve

membrane cell pairs as schematised in Fig. 6. The limiting current
densities, for feed ow rates varying as 18e108 L/h were observed
to be in the range 2.15e3.35 A/m2; the operating cost thus incurred
was about one eighth of that resulting from the application of
evaporation alone. ED could hence successfully concentrate the RO
Fig. 6. Engineered ED stack assembly (Praneeth et al., 2014).
reject obtained out of textile industrial efuent; the percentage of

inorganic constituents in the digest thus obtained, was enhanced
from 4.35% to about 24%. ED was found to be especially applicable
in energy efcient treatment of RO rejects with low COD concentration; the dilute stream obtained could then be recycled to RO
plant for further recovery of reusable process water.
3.6. Integrated process
Researchers claim that integrated membrane based processes
are highly propitious for the treatment of complex efuents such as
textile efuents, which are highly deleterious because of their
heterogeneity, and the presence of complex and recalcitrant constituents, such as dyes, salts and auxiliary chemicals (Koltuniewicz,
and Drioli, 2008). The consumption of huge volume of materials
and high energy in textile industries hence calls for process
intensication through the introduction of hybrid treatment techniques; this is done to ensure environmental compliance, and to
reduce energy expenditure and materials uptake, thereby abating
shock loads on single unit operations (Pophali et al., 2003; Van der
Bruggen et al., 2004). The selectivity and effectiveness of these
hybrid processes can be suitably enhanced of judicious permutation and combination of treatment techniques which complement
each other (Aouni et al., 2009; Ellouze et al., 2012). Literature survey reveals a number of studies conducted to examine the efciencies of these processes for textile efuent treatment. Many of
these investigations focused on the potential of combined physicochemical/biological and membrane separation processes, such
as, integrated ozone-BAFs (ozone biological aerated lters) and
membrane ltration (RO), for generating recyclable process stream
(He et al., 2013). For instance, low-pressure microltration with
sz et al. (2014) to
hollow bre membranes was used by Kerte
separate and recover anatase TiO2 photocatalyst, which had earlier
been employed to degrade organic azo dye, Acid Red 1 photocatalytically. Application of electro-catalytic oxidation equipped
with novel tailor fabricated Ti/SnO2eSb2O3eY anode prior to
nanoltration of Acid Red 73 (AR 73) wastewater by Xu et al. (2014)
signicantly improved the subsequent NF process performance by
reducing concentration polarization and fouling of membranes. A
voltage of 10Vand an operating pressure of 0.6 MPa at low crossow velocity was applied to achieve optimal specic energy consumption for the combined process.
In another independent study by Banerjee et al. (2007), the
signicance of the chronological sequence of the different treatment steps constituting a hybrid treatment scheme was investigated by quantifying the performance of three different efuent
treatment schemes in terms of permeate ux and permeate concentration at various operating pressures, feed concentrations and
cross-ow velocities; synthetic eosin dye solution was selected as
the model textile efuent. Three schemes, namely, Scheme 1
involving advanced oxidation process (AOP) using Fenton's reagent
followed by NF, Scheme 2 involving NF followed by AOP and
67
Scheme 3 consisting of two-step NF were selected for examination.

The results showed that Scheme 1 was suitable for dye removal for
feed concentrations not exceeding 70 mg/L; however, at higher
feed concentrations (100e200 mg/L) the reduction of permeate dye
concentration below 1 mg/L was rendered difcult. Scheme 3,
consisting of two step NF conguration, overcomes this drawback
by reducing eosin dye concentration to a level below 1 mg/L at all
the feed concentrations (70e200 mg/L); 828 kPa operating pressure and 0.91 m/s cross-ow velocity were selected as optimal
process parameters of the scheme. Additionally, supplementary
chemicals were not required making Scheme 3 the most feasible
and innocuous of all the schemes under scrutiny. Scheme 2 was
rejected owing to the signicant permeate ux decline observed in
the NF unit and more importantly the subsequent unreasonably
lengthy AOP process (operating time greater than 3 h) required to
bring about permeate eosin concentration reduction below the
desirable 1 mg/L level. Table 5 lists the various integrated membrane based processes, involving two or more treatment techniques, which concurrently address the various aspects of textile
efuents treatment, including contaminant removal, water reclamation and recovery of unexhausted dyes or auxiliary chemicals.
These physicochemical/membrane combinations, however, at
times suffer from certain loopholes. Li et al. (2014) reported one
such drawback while exploring the feasibility of employing a novel
integrated membrane coagulation reactor (IMCR) for the treatment
of textile efuents. The increase in coagulant polyaluminum chloride (PACl) dose exacerbated the fouling of membranes in the ultraltration unit and the membrane fouling was relatively more
pronounced for higher MWCO membrane.
Attempts have hence been made to design pragmatic membrane
base hybrid treatment systems, dealing exclusively with novel
combinations of different membrane based treatment processes,
wherein the balance between substance recovery and discharge is
essential for achieving higher separation efciency. For instance, a
comparative study was carried out between direct NF and UF/NF
hybrid systems by Fersi and Dhahbi (2008) through evaluation of
their respective performances in treating textile wastewater. The
experimental results highlighted the superiority of integrated UF/
NF process over exclusive NF process. Considerable improvement
was observed in color retention (>95%), conductivity and total
dissolved salts retentions (80%) and bivalent ions retention (>95%)
values on application of UF/NF combination. Additionally, complete
decolourization was achieved even at a relatively low transmembrane pressure (TMP). Similar studies on the effectiveness of
UF as a pre-treatment process for the subsequent nanoltration
(NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) were conducted by Arnal et al.
(2008), revealed that incorporation of UF stage prior to the NF
stage led to a remarkable decline in the fouling of NF membranes.
Nandy et al. (2007) conducted a case study on the employment of
ultraltration and reverse osmosis in textile efuent treatment. The
investigation also elaborated the routing of reverse osmosis (RO)
concentrates through evaporator in order to achieve zero liquid
Table 5
Various integrated systems involving membrane based processes for textile efuents treatment.
Integrated systems
Textile wastewater characteristics
Reference
Coagulation/ultraltration
Fenton oxidation/membrane bioreactor (MBR) process
Raw textile efuents

Raw efuent of integrated dyeing wastewater treatment plant (IDWTP)
Principal dye: Reactive Blue 4 (RB4)
Synthetic textile efuent:
Reactive dyes: Remazol Yellow RR, Remazol Blue RR and Remazol Red RR
Model post-dyeing textile (knitted cotton fabric) efuent: low temperature
reactive dyes Helaktyn Blue F-R (CI Reactive Blue 4), Helaktyn Yellow F-5G
(CI Reactive Yellow 1), Helaktyn Red Fe5B (CI Reactive Red 2).
Real textile wastewater (dyeing and nishing facilities.
Lee et al., 2009

Feng et al., 2010
Sequencing batch reactor SBR)/nanoltration (NF)

Nanoltration (NF)/anoxic biodegradation
Zuriaga-Agust et al., 2010

_
Zya
et al., 2006
68
efuent discharge. Around 55% of fresh water demand for industry

was conserved through the implementation of this treatment
scheme. These investigations thus reveal the viability of the integrated treatment schemes which have been ingeniously engineered
to address the various issues pertaining to textile wastewater
treatment.
4. Modelling and analysis
The discussion on membrane based treatment processes is
incomplete without an elaborate perception of the mechanism
governing the transport of solute across the membranes and
comprehensive modelling of membrane based techniques. Simulation of the performance of various membrane based processes is
an indispensable preliminary to the meticulous monitoring of solute transport through membranes (Foley, 2013).
Formulation of a near-accurate predictive model for any membrane based separation technique, hence, has to address the
following three basic issues catering to solute transport: transfer of
solvents and accompanying solutes (1) within the concentration
boundary layer at the phase boundary, (2) through the porous
membrane and (3) within the membrane pores (Banerjee and De,
2010a; Dutta, 2007).
The rejection of dyes using PEUF was quantied by Mondal et al.
(2012) through a theoretical model which reected the interaction
between dyes and polymers by means of a reaction mechanism
obtained from reversible thermodynamics.
The model demonstrating the binding mechanism of the dyes to
the polymers was expressed as:
Lt L
L2
K LDt
1
Ka
1 K1 L
(1)
where Ka symbolises the dissociation constant for conversion of the

protonated form of the monomer (LH) to its non-protonated form
(L) and K1 denotes the complex forming constant for the reaction
between (L) and independent dye molecules (D) which produces
the monomeredye complex (LD). The inuence of the co-ions
present on dye retention was also modelled. The calculated
values of the various kinetic parameters conformed reasonably to
the experimentally determined data, which further validated the
reliability of the engineered model equations.
Purkait et al. (2004b) examined the degree of ux decline
observed while carrying out micellar enhanced ultraltration
(MEUF) of an acid dye (eosin red); hexadecyl (cetyl) pyridinium
chloride was used as the cationic surfactant in this investigation.
Several efforts have earlier been made to characterize nanoltration membranes in terms of their pore size distribution effects (Bowen and Welfoot, 2002), or to develop a model which
could theoretically assess the performance of membrane nanoltration in the recovery of valuable products from a process
discharge (Oatley et al., 2005). Attempts were further made to
improve the permeate ux observed for nanoltration of dye solutions using turbulent promoters. The performance of the innovatively congured turbulent promoter enhanced nanoltration of
model dye solutions was suitably assayed and successfully simulated using a predictive semi-empirical model (Auddy et al., 2005,
2004).
The resistance-in-series model has been frequently applied in a
number of documented modelling-based investigations to evaluate
the ux decline occurring in membrane based processes. For
instance, Fersi et al. (2009) used the resistance-in-series model to
quantify the different ltration resistances governing ux decline
in membrane based textile wastewater treatment; the processes
included MF, UF and NF, wherein MF and UF preceded the NF
process as pre-treatment techniques. The model used was

expressed as:
Rtot Rm Rcp Rf
(2)
where resistance, Rm, offered by the membrane material, resistance, Rcp, due to concentration polarization, and fouling resistance,
Rf were the ltration resistances which contributed primarily to the
total ltration resistance Rtot. The fouling resistance, Rf was viewed
as the summation of reversible fouling resistance Rrf and irreversible fouling resistance Rif.
The recorded results and the explicit analysis of ux decline
using Wiesner and Aptel equations as well as the resistance-inseries model indicated that the ux decline for UF membrane
was mainly due to concentration polarization; whereas the decline
in ux for NF membrane was attributed principally to fouling.
The salient characteristics solution-diffusion model, lm theory
and osmotic pressure and the effect of adsorption were combined
to seek a mechanistic understanding of the concentration polarization effect which is primarily responsible for fouling of membranes. A steady state mathematical paradigm simulating the
nanoltration of synthetic eosin dye solution was thus developed
(Banerjee and De, 2010b).
Banerjee and De (2010a) further amalgamated concentration
polarization and pore ow models to quantify the ux decline and
solute rejection observed for the nanoltration of a model textile
efuent comprising a two ionic dye (Cibacron Black and Cibacron
Red) system and salt (NaCl). The governing factors, namely, diffusion, convection, and electrical migration of the charged species, as
well as their interplay were adequately determined.
Lau and Ismail (2009) documented and reviewed models such
as, extended NernstePlank model (ENP), Spiegler and Kedem
model (SP), TeoremeMeyereSiever (TMS) and the DonnaneSteric
pore model (DSPM) used to quantify salt rejection, while unsteadystate mass transfer model was developed to visualize the separation of dye components in an unstirred NF batch.
Kurt et al. (2012) formulated empirical equations using Statsoft
STATISTICA 8.0. These equations associated the instantaneous ux
with inlet COD, conductivity and color values.
The high COD, conductivity and color retention data obtained
revealed the suitability of reverse osmosis (RO-XLE) and nanoltration (NF-270) membranes for treatment for textile
wastewaters.
Srisukphun et al. (2009) designed a mathematical model that
quantied the interplay of foulants in textile waste stream, namely,
surfactant, reactive dye (anionic dye), and efuent organic matters
(EfOMs), and the effect of such interaction on fouling of reverse
osmosis (RO) membrane. The permeate ux J could hence be estimated from the following model equation:
J L0 1 b lnt t0 b lnt0 DP sDp
(3)
where b and t0 denote respectively the reduction rate of site

available for membrane ltration (min1) and the initial time at
which available site reduction commences (min). The notation s
represents the reection coefcient and (DP sDp) is the effective
trans-membrane pressure (TMP) driving force, while L0 is the initial
permeability. (t t0) is the ltration time (min).
Besides, batch extraction of model dyes, crystal violet and
methylene blue, and their binary mixtures from aqueous solutions
using emulsion liquid membrane was mathematically simulated
using conventional and modied mass transfer models based on
spherical shell approach; the research innovatively explicated the
closed form analytical solution for a multi-component system
(Agarwal et al., 2010).
Theoretical modelling of membrane based separation processes

usually presents several computational challenges. Nevertheless,
these models have been quite successful in providing a deeper and
a more detailed understanding of the solute transport mechanism
across membranes. The parameters, such as permeate ux, membrane fouling tendency and solute retention, can hence be estimated and monitored, albeit with imperfect universality, with the
help of these pragmatic simulations (Foley, 2013).
5. Economic evaluation of textile wastewater treatment using
membrane based processes
The applicability of any process in the industrial avenue can be
ascertained only after analyzing the pragmatism of the process
from the economic perspective. Hence, a number of evaluations
were conducted by various scientists to verify the economic feasibility of membrane based techniques, so as to ensure the successful
employment of these methods in textile industries (He et al., 2011;
Ranganathan et al., 2007; Van der Bruggen et al., 2004). The present
section illustrates some of these investigations.
A techno-economical evaluation of an ultraltration and reverse
osmosis based wastewater treatment unit on a pilot scale was
carried out by Ciardelli et al. (2000) using secondary efuents from
dyeing and nishing plants; the efuents were preliminarily
treated by means of activated sludge oxidation. The economic
evaluation of ultraltration as a textile waste stream pre-treatment
technique was also carried out by Simonic (2009) in terms of
payback period (tp), the net present value (NPV), and internal rate
of return (IRR) estimation.
Vergili et al. (2012) analysed the effectiveness of the zero liquid
discharge (ZLD) method in evaluating the techno-economic aspects
of textile wastewater treatment through integrated membrane
processes. These hybrid processes comprised various associations
of ultraltration (UF), loose nanoltration (NF1), tight nanoltration (NF2) and reverse osmosis (RO). A comparative technoeconomic analysis of four different combinations, namely, UF/NF2
(S (I)), NF1/NF2 (S (II)), NF1/RO (S (III)) and UF/NF2/RO (S (IV))), was
carried out, wherein each scenario was accompanied by a subsequent membrane distillation (MD) process. The evaluated parameters included capital and operating costs, revenues, benet/cost
(B/C) ratios and pay-back times. The third and fourth combinations
were not cost-effective, given the decline in the prots achieved by
recycling the soda ash and NaCl recovered from the treated
wastewater. The unit treatment costs computed for the scenarios S
(I), S (II), S (III) and S (IV) were 1.37, 1.38, 2.16 and 2.01 $/m3 of
inuent respectively and their corresponding return periods were
0.87, 0.91, 2.07 and 1.51 years, respectively Moreover, the B/C ratios
of 3.58 and 3.55 for scenarios S (I) and S (II) respectively, suggested
that S (I) and S (II) were the most viable options from the technological and economic point of view. It was thus afrmed that the
ZLD approach could most efciently bring about textile dye bath
waste treatment as well as recycling of processed textile waste
stream. However, the successful application of this process was
delimited the unit incineration cost incurred due to the concentrate
which in turn resulted in considerably constrained investment return period; besides the suitability of the approach was primarily
affected by the actual volume of processed MD, which contributed
signicantly (70e90%) to the B/C ratio.
Praneeth et al. (2014) further carried out a comparative economic evaluation of the performance of evaporation alone and that
of an integrated process comprising electrodialysis (ED) and
evaporation; the performance in each case was scaled in terms of
the efciencies exhibited by the methods while generating textile
efuent concentrate through further treatment of RO reject obtained from textile discharge. The estimation, albeit approximate,
69
revealed that the cost incurred to bring about the concentration of

RO reject through singular use of evaporation was 3.88 US $ per m3
of textile RO reject, which was considerably higher than the corresponding operating cost estimated at 0.55 US $/m3 of textile RO
reject for ED-evaporation hybrid technique. The economic analysis
hence established the fact that preceding the evaporative treatment of RO reject by electrodialysis was the most economic option,
with a relatively short capital investment recovery period of 110
days. A plot illustrating the variation of operating, capital and total
costs (y-axis) against linear feed velocity (x-axis) further demonstrated a rise in operating cost and a decline in capital cost with a
corresponding increase in ow velocity. The optimal linear velocity
at a point where the total cost prole hit a minimum level of 0.144
US $/m3, was reported at 0.008 m/s.
Thus, the explicit application of progressively evolving membrane technology in the arena of textile discharge treatment can
successfully bring about process intensication in textile facilities;
such an arrangement, in turn proposes to offset the initial capital
cost through conservation and extensive reuse of energy, materials
and process water. The judicious use of membrane based treatment
techniques in textile industries, thereby, infuses an element of
sustainability in the process and can be viewed as a promising
amalgamation of environmental benignity and cost-effectiveness
(Van der Bruggen et al., 2004).
6. Conclusion
The present critical appraisal clearly highlights the fact that the
role essayed by these membrane based treatment methods in
generating reclaimable textile efuents is quite palpable. The
judicious selection of the appropriate membrane based method is,
however, inuenced by the quality of the treated process stream
desired, characteristics of the membrane and the rheological heterogeneity of the efuent at hand, as well as the position of the
process in the cost spectrum. For instance, the quality of water
recovered through microltration or ultraltration usually does not
satisfy the criteria for reuse in critical processes such as dyeing of
bres; this reclaimed water is mostly reused in rinse vats or as wash
water in textile industries. Subsequent NF and/or RO processes are
therefore necessary for producing premier quality treated efuent
that can be directly reused in the primary textile steps such as
dying, which demand clean and consistent supply of softened
water. Additionally, NF and RO concentrates from membrane based
single or hybrid treatment schemes, can be treated further using
relatively energy-efcient membrane crystallization units and/or
membrane distillation followed by incineration of the MD concentrates so as to bring about successful effectuation of the concept
of zero liquid discharge (ZLD). Given the recovery of value-added
products from the membrane based processes and the substantial
energy yield from the subsequent incineration units, the costs
incurred and energy consumed in various prefatory treatment
processes are adequately compensated for. The success of the ZLD
approach in such congurations is however governed by the
membrane distillation process, which dictates 70e90% of the
benet/cost ratio. The present critique also reveals that some of the
drawbacks of membrane based techniques, such as membrane
fouling, can been adequately resolved through the use of efuentspecic tailor-fabricated membranes or appropriate membrane
modules and through punctilious monitoring of pore ow of solutes, concentration polarization and ux decline. The continuously
evolving industrial scenario demands further investigations on
these membrane based treatment techniques so as to devise
ingenious measures to enhance their performance and cost effectiveness. For instance, it is observed that the UF/NF combination is
essentially a pragmatic treatment scheme, in terms of performance,
70
membrane fouling control and energy efciency. Modications,

such as inclusion of PEUF or other conventional treatment techniques, such as coagulation or biodegradation, in such hybrid
treatment schemes can be further explored, keeping the mutually
conicting criteria, namely product quality, throughput and cost in
perspective. Such treatment schemes can also be considered for
scale-up, once the techno-economic feasibility of these hybrid
treatment processes is established. Additionally, cumbersome
equations encountered while modelling the performance of
membrane based techniques, can be solved using advanced simulation tools, such as MATLAB. Nevertheless, despite its imperfections, the genesis of membrane technology can still been regarded
as a revolutionary technological breakthrough, and with the future
methodological improvements, membrane technology will
certainly emerge as the Holy Grail of industrial wastewater
treatment.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found in
the online version, at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2014.08.
008.
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Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Environmental Management

Remediation of textile efuents by membrane based treatment

* Corresponding author. Tel./fax: 39 0984 49 6670.

without prior treatment. The wastewater obtained from the textile

J. Dasgupta et al. / Journal of Environmental Management 147 (2015) 55e72

Various treatment techniques are in use to mitigate the

Catalytic degradation (biosynthesized silver Nanocatalysts)

Methyl orange, methylene blue and eosin Y

Vidhu and Philip, 2014

Real textile efuent

Malpass et al., 2007

Real textile efuents

Garcia et al., 2009

Adsorption (activated carbon)

Electrolysis (anode materials:

Ozonation (Batch reactor)

Ahmad and Hameed, 2009

Malpass et al., 2008

Tehrani-Bagha et al., 2010

J. Dasgupta et al. / Journal of Environmental Management 147 (2015) 55e72

2001; Verma et al., 2012). Advanced oxidation processes, such as,

membrane based treatment processes (Fersi et al., 2005;

J. Dasgupta et al. / Journal of Environmental Management 147 (2015) 55e72

characteristic quality imparted to processed fabric, properties and

alkalis, and other noxious additives in smaller amounts (Volmajer

J. Dasgupta et al. / Journal of Environmental Management 147 (2015) 55e72

assistance such as spent solvents. Besides, residual chemicals such

The choice of suitable membrane technologies depends on the

Discharge limit into public

J. Dasgupta et al. / Journal of Environmental Management 147 (2015) 55e72

ltration processes (Mulder, 1996). Microltration membranes

(LbL) assembly. Two representative textile efuents, methylene

J. Dasgupta et al. / Journal of Environmental Management 147 (2015) 55e72

handicaps suffered by membrane technology; these drawbacks are

Reactive dye (textile yarn

>98% dye rejection

1. Direct Green G, Direct

Aqueous acid dye eosin

Aqueous cationic dye

>97% dye (MW > 780)

Reactive Black 5 (RB5 MW:

99.7% RB5 rejection

Salts ((NaCl, CaCl2, Na2SO4,

60e93% salt rejection

Flux decreases with

Reactive Black 5 (RB5) dye

Maximum 95.2% dye

J. Dasgupta et al. / Journal of Environmental Management 147 (2015) 55e72

estimate the competence of ultraltration in textile wastewater

under scrutiny as feasible pre-treatment alternatives for textile

J. Dasgupta et al. / Journal of Environmental Management 147 (2015) 55e72

for an aqueous solution containing 2000 mg/L Congo red and

cnica de Valencia (Bes-Pia et al., 2010).

J. Dasgupta et al. / Journal of Environmental Management 147 (2015) 55e72

Ultraltration (UF) and

Raw efuents (textile

High color, COD and

Textile efuent (dyeing

>99% dye removal

Flux (NE-70) twice ux